50/50

Trois. Woo.
I'm not going to lie to you. After my (500) Days of Summer review, I re-saw it. The good news is that I fell in deep love.. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This leads us to our next review!

Who needs hair when you're Joesph Gordon-Levitt?

  This fine evening, I will be reviewing Jonathan Levine's 50/50, starring Seth Rogen and more importantly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This dark comedy is about a man suddenly discovering that he has a rare cancer and how he copes with this fact though the world around him continues to spin. Let me just pause here and say wow. I have not thoroughly enjoyed a movie like this since.. The Lion King 3D. Everything about this film fits perfectly like a puzzle; the humor, the realism, and even the cancer. 

"I'm going to throw up", he's taking the news well.

I will start off saying that Seth Rogen was near flawless. He brought a certain hilarity throughout the movie regardless of its black overtones. His jokes were raunchy and some of them were straight up vulgar, but funny. With such a depressing plot in this movie, nothing could truly counteract such sorrow; but Rogen does the unimaginable. And so does Gordon-Levitt, despite the whole cancer thing. 

This is how you get over a break-up.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a regular guy who suddenly becomes a cancer patient. Though he may be remembered through other roles such as (oh God) Tom in (500) Days of Bullshit, I will never forget him in this. Such as Drake, who just doesn't sit right with me without his wheelchair, Joseph may never look the same with a bald head and a tumor on his spine. I mean this in the best of ways. I've just witnessed a man sink into what seems, an inexorable disease and in the prime of his youth. I doubt anyone could have portrayed this kind of emotion any better. 

So much in fact that, Gordon-Levitt is forgiven for ever being that other movie..

The movie is called 50/50, a play on the survival ratio from the large-syllable'd cancer in this movie, but as an audience member, I would flat out call this movie a cancerous roller coaster; it literally forced me to care about the characters. I want to watch it over and over again with different friends or family, just to see what kind of impression this gives off. If this film does one guaranteed thing, it leaves a huge impression. Which some movies, especially in today's "modern" green-screened-CGI-infested world, cannot. It would seem out of my place to say that this is a "must-see", but then again, we're all going to die eventually. So, do yourself a favor and watch it.

They sure are watching you.. Sleep.

50/50 is 100 minutes long and rated R for language throughout, sexual content, and some drug use.

(500) Days of Summer

Chalk this up for number two. 

Sorry, my sweet and loyal audience, my cohorts and I have been feeling a bit lazy when it comes to writing our reviews on movies. But fear not, we've continued watching them. So today, we have here a fan favorite. Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer is considered one of the best romance comedies of my generation for obvious reasons. It's about a man who falls for a woman that does not believe in love.. basically. When put like that, this movie does not seem like much of a movie.

And this picture doesn't seem like much of a picture..

The main character is Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, that is an average guy that does average things with his average life and seeks love. Enter Zooey Deschanel, who is Summer Finn. Summer is a Tom's dream girl. She is funny, interesting, smart, and steals his heart. Webb, then, steals our, the viewership's, heart. In the worst ways possible though, and I have to complain.

One picture that could summarize this entire movie

I giggled.

   Mister Marc must have bought a book on how to keep the audience entranced, and that's not bad, it's just he is not very good at hiding this Achilles's heel. In this movie, there is every single aspect of it being unique, such as a dance sequence or a split view between reality and expectation. Even a narrator! A fucking narrator! It's gets me heated just thinking about how much clutter there is in this movie. And worst of all, it is okay clutter, if such a paradigm can exist. To the untrained eye, such pinnacle scenes can draw you deeper into the false universe created through cinema. At sometimes, I gave in to the sheer cuteness of Deschanel and her chemistry with Gordon-Levitt, but the exaggeration present in this movie is overwhelming. 

Top: Depression

Bottom: Child not helping *see Top*

I don't want to reveal much in the plot but is it not obvious that something happens between Tom and Summer that causes depression? Good, we agree on something. Now, tension in or between characters drive the movie forward. But Tom throws "depression" into an ocean gorge and redefines the word. He is obviously suicidal and has more to lose than we have seen. Which as an audience member and fellow male, I hate this. As a movie critic, it hurts me to see something that I cannot relate to. But obviously, making this movie 500 days long is.. silly. So, I'll have to live with not fully understand Tom's conflict.

As a man, I was insulted. I've never seen a man like Tom. He was very expressive with his emotions, especially adding to the fact that Webb made it seem him seem even worse. You can ignore my personal vendetta though. Sorry for this small tangent.

      To say this is a bad movie is just wrong. (500) Days of Summer is successful in every way possible; it has a huge following, it did great in the box office, and leaves the audience eerily satisfied. It is cute, funny, and heart.. warming/colding, I guess. At the end of the film, I didn't regret watching it, but don't blame me for expecting more. I'd even put my reputation on line to say it is one of my favorite rom-coms. If you are contemplating watching this movie, just relax and breathe.  Don't be scared if you unknowingly love it.

Just look at Tom! He's so happy.. for now.

(500) Days of Summer is 95 minutes and rated PG-13 for sexual material and language.

A Knight's Tale

Let's do this thang..

"We will rock you!"
Yeaah.. No..

The first movie I'll be reviewing is Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale featuring the always lovely Heath Ledger. In this film, a cocky squire replaces his knight master in a jousting tournament during the Medieval-est of times. He creates a fake sir-name (see what I did there?) and continues to dominate tournaments throughout the land, only to fall in love with a Lady and make enemies with the Jousting World Champ. Can Heath deceive everyone but still rule the sport and remain happy? Well, no. But, it was entertaining to watch..

.. And I don't mean that in the best of ways.

Smile for me, Heath.

   Everything in this movie is fun and quirky, the latter overcoming the first definitely. A Knight's Tale is a prime example of an averagely good movie; every scene is fine, the jokes are fine, the acting is fine, and even the musical score is sub-par, more on this later. Watching this film alone is fine and dandy, but I do presume that the entire experience will be much more enjoyable with close friends or family. There aren't any mature scenes or any excess of blood loss, which is surprising since this movie focuses around the grueling sport of Jousting. 

God damn! Gimme some blood, raah!

  The beginning sequence alone was enough for me to stand up and leave the room. There was no hook in this movie. Not to mention the awful yellow words that might as well say, "this movie is mediocre." But hell, if Star Wars can do it, why not this? As a movie critic, I had to finish the movie. Luckily, I was surprised to see Queen's "We Will Rock You" being lip-synced by the jousting tourney's audience. Whoopee. 

  Once the actual plot started forming, I felt tempted to continue watching. Heath Ledger with dreads is simply not something one can walk away from. Then, bam! It hit me like a ton of bricks; this film is a comedy that was improperly labelled "action-adventure". Paul Bettany, who is known from such films as Priest and Legion, plays Geoffrey and almost single-handedly rescues A Knight's Tale. His character was the comedic remedy that was completely needed. Though he was genuinely hysterical, a lot of this movie was. But not on purpose.

The only man with a Whispering Eye

  Take for instance the musical score that didn't score at all; whose idea was it to play The Boys are Back when they returned to London? I mean, c'mon. Or even better/worse, the leading lady, Jocelyn. It's none-other than Shannyn Sossamon, who in every aspect, does not resemble someone of English royalty. Worst of all was the apparent antagonist, Count Adhemar (played by Rufus Sewell). Needless to say, he was neither really intimidating nor truly vile.
   Good news though! It's not complete shit poop. I will admit to laughing out loud a couple of times and adoring to the heartfelt moments. Ledger and the cast did impressive jobs as their characters, accompanied by a couple of laughable accents. Even the actions scene when it was jouster against jouster was laced with anticipation, though admittingly enough, there is just something lack-luster about Jousting. That single fault alone could make or break the entire movie experience. IMDB gave this movie a 6.7/10 and Rotten Tomatoes scores it 58% rotten, which is bad. Despite these scores, I will say with confidence that this film is definitely watchable. If one day, you are bored and scanning through your Netflix library or movie rental place, watch it carefully. It just might surprise you.

A Knight's Tale is 132 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violence, nudity, and brief-sex related dialogue. Thank you.

Meet the Authors: Samantha

  Introducing the one and only, Samantha Claire Brown. The only certified Jedi knight in the continental United States, she spends most of her time perfecting the art of Pastry making whilst role-playing on Internet forums with the love of her life, Matt. Sam is the brains of the operation behind Follywood, making all executive decisions the only way she knows how. Executively. Catch her featurettes on Mondays and Wednesday.

That's our girl.

Meet the Authors: Mike

  The other man-behind-the-curtain of the operation is Mr. Michael Antonio Reyes. Computer networking student by day, movie avenger by night, Mike tackles B-movies, beats back documentaries and kicks-the-hell out of bad horror films while parading about on the back of a massive lion. Will he ever conquer the internet? Tune in on Tuesdays and Thursdays to find out!

Mike is watching... Always watching.